Jacques Lipchitz (26 May 1973) was a

Cubist Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

sculptor. Lipchitz retained highly figurative and legible components in his work leading up to 1915–16, after which naturalist and descriptive elements were muted, dominated by a synthetic style of

Crystal Cubism Crystal Cubism (French: ''Cubisme cristal'' or ''Cubisme de cristal'') is a distilled form of Cubism consistent with a shift, between 1915 and 1916, towards a strong emphasis on flat surface activity and large overlapping geometric planes. The p ...

. In 1920 Lipchitz held his first solo exhibition, at Léonce Rosenberg's Galerie L'Effort Moderne in Paris. Fleeing the Nazis he moved to the US and settled in New York City and eventually Hastings-on-Hudson.

Life and career

Jacques Lipchitz was born Chaim Jacob Lipschitz, in a Litvak family, son of a

building contractor A general contractor, main contractor or prime contractor is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and the communication of information to all involved parties throughout the course of ...

Druskininkai Druskininkai (; pl, Druskieniki; be, Друскенiкi; yi, דרוזגעניק, translit=Druzgenik) is a spa town on the Nemunas River in southern Lithuania, close to the borders of Belarus and Poland. The city of Druskininkai has a population ...

, Lithuania, then within the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

. He studied at Vilnius grammar school and Vilnius Art School. Under the influence of his father he studied engineering in 1906–1909, but soon after, supported by his mother he moved to Paris (1909) to study at the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centur ...

and the Académie Julian. It was there, in the artistic communities of

Montmartre Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue Ca ...

and

Montparnasse Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. Montparnasse has bee ...

, that he joined a group of artists that included

Juan Gris José Victoriano González-Pérez (23 March 1887 – 11 May 1927), better known as Juan Gris (; ), was a Spanish painter born in Madrid who lived and worked in France for most of his active period. Closely connected to the innovative artistic ge ...

and

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

as well as where his friend, Amedeo Modigliani, painted ''

Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz ''Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz'' is a 1916 oil on canvas painting by Amedeo Modigliani. It depicts Modigliani's friend, the sculptor Jacques Lipchitz, standing alongside his seated wife Berthe. Modigliani and Lipchitz had each moved to France at ...

''. Living in this environment, Lipchitz soon began to create

Cubist sculpture Cubist sculpture developed in parallel with Cubism, Cubist painting, beginning in Paris around 1909 with its Proto-Cubism, proto-Cubist phase, and evolving through the early 1920s. Just as Cubist painting, Cubist sculpture is rooted in Paul Cézan ...

. In 1912 he exhibited at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and the

Salon d'Automne The Salon d'Automne (; en, Autumn Salon), or Société du Salon d'automne, is an art exhibition held annually in Paris, France. Since 2011, it is held on the Champs-Élysées, between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, in mid-October. The f ...

with his first solo show held at Léonce Rosenberg's Galerie L'Effort Moderne in Paris in 1920. In 1922 he was commissioned by the

Barnes Foundation The Barnes Foundation is an art collection and educational institution promoting the appreciation of art and horticulture. Originally in Merion, the art collection moved in 2012 to a new building on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Penn ...

in Merion, Pennsylvania to execute seven bas-reliefs and two sculptures. With artistic innovation at its height, in the 1920s he experimented with abstract forms he called ''transparent sculptures''. Later he developed a more dynamic style, which he applied with telling effect to bronze compositions of figures and animals. In 1924-25 Lipchitz became a French citizen through naturalization and married Berthe Kitrosser. With the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

occupation of France during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, and the deportation of Jews to the Nazi

death camps Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...

, Lipchitz had to flee France. With the assistance of the American journalist

Varian Fry Varian Mackey Fry (October 15, 1907 – September 13, 1967) was an American journalist. Fry ran a rescue network in Vichy France that helped approximately 2,000 to 4,000 anti-Nazi and Jewish refugees to escape Nazi Germany and the Holocaust ...

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

, he escaped the Nazi regime and went to the United States. There, he eventually settled in

Hastings-on-Hudson, New York Hastings-on-Hudson is a village in Westchester County located in the southwestern part of the town of Greenburgh in the state of New York, United States. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, approximately north of midtown Manh ...

. He was one of 250 sculptors who exhibited in the Third Sculpture International Exhibition held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the summer of 1949. He has been identified among seventy of those sculptors in a photograph ''Life'' magazine published that was taken at the exhibition. In 1954 a Lipchitz retrospective traveled from

The Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of th ...

in New York to the

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, to ...

in Minneapolis and

The Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...

. In 1959, his series of small bronzes ''To the Limit of the Possible'' was shown at Fine Arts Associates in New York. In his later years Lipchitz became more involved in his Jewish faith, even referring to himself as a "religious Jew" in an interview in 1970. He began abstaining from work on Shabbat and put on

Tefillin Tefillin (; Israeli Hebrew: / ; Ashkenazic pronunciation: ), or phylacteries, are a set of small black leather boxes with leather straps containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah. Tefillin are worn by adult Jews durin ...

daily, at the urging of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson. Beginning in 1963 he returned to Europe for several months of each year and worked in

Pietrasanta Pietrasanta is a town and ''comune'' on the coast of northern Tuscany in Italy, in the province of Lucca. Pietrasanta is part of Versilia, on the last foothills of the Apuan Alps, about north of Pisa. The town is located off the coast, where the ...

, Italy. He developed a close friendship with fellow sculptor,

Fiore de Henriquez Fiore de Henriquez (1921-2004) was an Italian-British sculptor. Personal life and education De Henriquez was born in Trieste to a father descended from Spanish noblemen of the Habsburg court in Vienna; her mother was of Turkish and Russian orig ...

. In 1972 his autobiography, co-authored with

H. Harvard Arnason Hjorvardur Harvard Arnason (1909 – 1986) was an American academic, administrator, author and art historian focusing on modern art. His most enduring contribution was his survey of modern art, ''History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Archite ...

, was published on the occasion of an exhibition of his sculpture at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in New York.

Death and legacy

Jacques Lipchitz died in Capri, Italy. A contingent including Rabbi

Gershon Mendel Garelik Rabbi Gershon Mendel Garelik (14 May 1932 - 13 February 2021) was a Chabad rabbi in Milan, Italy for more than 60 years. He was also head of Chabad institutions in Italy. He was also an active Beit Din head in that city. He was active in the R ...

flew with his body to Jerusalem for the burial. His Tuscan Villa Bozio was donated to Chabad-Lubavitch in Italy and currently hosts an annual Jewish summer camp in its premises.

Selected works

Amedeo Modigliani - Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz - Google Art Project

*''Sailor with Guitar'' – 1917 *''Drawing of a sculpture'' – 1916 *''Bather'' – 1916–17 *''Woman with Book'' – 1918, at Carleton College *''Bather, bronze'' – 1923–1925 *''Reclining Nude with Guitar'' – 1928, a prime example of Cubism *''Dancer with Veil'' – 1928 *''Dancer'' – 1929 *''The Song of the Vowels'' – (''Le Chant des Voyelles''), – 1931 cast bronze sculptures at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

;

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

;

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

; Stanford University; Kykuit Estate Gardens (New York),

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, and the

Kröller-Müller Museum The Kröller-Müller Museum () is a national art museum and sculpture garden, located in the Hoge Veluwe National Park in Otterlo in the Netherlands. The museum, founded by art collector Helene Kröller-Müller within the extensive grounds of ...

(Netherlands) *''Bull and Condor'' – 1932 *''Bust of a Woman'' – 1932 *''David and Goliath'' – 1933 *''Embracing Figures'' – 1941 *''Prometheus Strangling the Vulture'' – 1944 *'' Birth of the Muses'' 1944–1950,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

(MIT) campus, Cambridge, Massachusetts *''Rescue II''- 1947 *''Mother and Child'' – 1949 at the

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single co ...

*''

John F. Kennedy Memorial, London A 1965 memorial bust of John F. Kennedy by Jacques Lipchitz stands in the lobby of International Students House on Great Portland Street in London, England,

'' - 1965. This was originally on Marylebone Road but from 2019 has been in the lobby of the

International Students House, London International Students House, London (colloquially shortened to ISH) is a set of lodgings for international and British students in London. It permanently occupies one large building in streets that faces Park Crescent which in turn across a squ ...

at 229

Great Portland Street Great Portland Street in the West End of London links Oxford Street with Albany Street and the A501 Marylebone Road and Euston Road. A commercial street including some embassies, it divides Fitzrovia, to the east, from Marylebone to the west. ...

*''Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut'' ''- 1965 at the

University of Minnesota Duluth The University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) is a public university in Duluth, Minnesota. It is part of the University of Minnesota system and offers 16 bachelor's degrees in 88 Academic major, majors, graduate programs in 25 different fields, and a ...

'' *'' Bellerophon Taming Pegasus: Large Version'' – 1966–1977, begun in 1966 and arrived at

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

in pieces for assembly in 1977 *'' Peace on Earth'' – 1967–1969 *''Government of the People'' – 1976

Gallery

File:Jacques Lipchitz, 1914, Acrobat on Horseback (Acrobate à cheval).jpg, Jacques Lipchitz, 1914, ''Acrobat on Horseback'' (''Acrobate à cheval'') File:Jacques Lipchitz, 1918, Still Life, bas relief, stone.jpg, Jacques Lipchitz, 1918, ''Instruments de musique'' (''Still Life''), bas relief, stone File:Jacques Lipchitz, 1918, Le Guitariste (The Guitar Player).jpg, Jacques Lipchitz, 1918, ''Le Guitariste'' (''The Guitar Player'') File:Jacques Lipchitz, 1919, Pierrot. Published in Action, Cahiers Individualistes De Philosophie Et D’art, July 1920.jpg, Jacques Lipchitz, 1919, ''Pierrot'' File:Jacques Lipchitz, 1919-20, Harlequin with Clarinet.jpg, Jacques Lipchitz, 1919–20, ''Harlequin with Clarinet'' File:Jacques Lipchitz, 1920, Harlequin with Clarinet.jpg, Jacques Lipchitz, 1920, ''Harlequin with Clarinet'' File:Jacques Lipchitz, 1920, Man with Guitar.jpg, Jacques Lipchitz, 1920, ''Man with Guitar'' File:Jacques Lipchitz, 1920, Portrait of Jean Cocteau.jpg, Jacques Lipchitz, 1920, ''Portrait of

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the s ...

'' File:'Mother and Child', bronze sculpture by --Jacques Lipchitz--, 1930, --Honolulu Academy of Arts--.jpg, ''Mother and Child'', 1930,

File:Lipshitz 1976 Philly.JPG, ''Government of the People'', bronze sculpture by Jacques Lipchitz, dedicated 1976, Philadelphia File:Jacques Lipchitz, Birth of the Muses (1944-1950), MIT Campus.JPG, '' Birth of the Muses'', bronze, 1944–1950, In memory of

Jerome Wiesner Jerome Bert Wiesner (May 30, 1915 – October 21, 1994) was a professor of electrical engineering, chosen by President John F. Kennedy as chairman of his Science Advisory Committee (PSAC). Educated at the University of Michigan, Wiesner was asso ...

- in the permanent collection of the

File:Spirit Enterprise 4.JPG, ''The Spirit of Enterprise'', 1960, in Fairmount Park,

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

References

*Arnason H. Harvard and Jacques Lipchitz. ''My Life in Sculpture''. New York: Viking Press, 1972. * Hammacher, Abraham Marie, ''Jacques Lipchitz, His Sculpture'', New York, H.N. Abrams, 1961. * Hope, Henry Radford, ''The Sculpture of Jacques Lipchitz'', New York, Plantin press, printed for the trustees of the Museum of Modern Art, 1954. * Lipchitz, Jacques, ''My Life in Sculpture'', New York, Viking Press, 1972. * Stott, Deborah A., ''Jacques Lipchitz and Cubism'', New York, Garland Pub., 1978. * Van Bork, Bert, ''Jacques Lipchitz, The Artist at Work'', New York, Crown Publishers, 1966. * Wilkinson, Alan G., ''Jacques Lipchitz, A Life in Sculpture'', Toronto, Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1989. * Dr Catherine Putz, ''Jacques Lipchitz: Master Drawings'', Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, 2009.

Notes

External links

*
Jacques Lipchitz, Agence Photographique de la Réunion des musées nationaux et du Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées

Bruce Bassett papers relating to Jacques Lipchitz, circa 1961–2001
from the Smithsonian

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...

"Ask Jacques Lipchitz a Question: Jacques Lipchitz interviews during the summers of 1970–1972"
Bruce W. Bassett, interviewer and video producer. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem donated by Hanno D. Mott, New York for the family of Jacques Lipchitz. Interactive online version published 2010
Lipchitz, Jacques, Encyclopedia Treccani.it (Italian)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lipchitz, Jacques 1891 births 1973 deaths People from Druskininkai People from Grodnensky Uyezd Lithuanian Jews Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France French people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent French emigrants to the United States American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent 20th-century American printmakers 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists 20th-century French sculptors American male sculptors Cubist artists French sculptors Jewish sculptors Jewish artists Lithuanian sculptors Modern sculptors People from Hastings-on-Hudson, New York School of Paris 01 Académie Julian alumni People of Montmartre Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters